...self care is never a selfish act- it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do so not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch.

Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak

Sunday, February 22, 2009

This 8 week series explores spiritual “habits of the heart" and the Christian experience of the Holy Spirit. This study engages a different form of prayer each week. The Preview gathering is Wednesday, March 25, 2009, 6:30-8:15 p.m. at A Moveable Feast, 9341 Katy Freeway. Hope you can join us!

Topics include:

• Where is the Spirit in Spirituality? (Preview)• How much am I willing to risk?• What is most important to me?• How can I find balance in life?• What do I want to be when I grow up?• How do I keep the things I own from owning me?• What can I do with my doubts?• Can a change in me change the world?

Each session begins with a meal, followed by a talk by Associate Pastor Scott Endress, and small groups. The Beginnings format is relaxed and informal. For more information or to RSVP, contact Scott Endress, (713) 354-4470, sendress@chapelwood.org.

Monday, February 16, 2009

In yesterday's sermon on Avoiding Spiritual Relapse (Matthew 12:43-45), I mentioned some of the results of non-reflective living, one being repeating empty platitudes that may do more harm than any possible good.

I meant to add: "There but the grace of God go I!" If we say this knowingly, we betray how puny our experience and understanding really is. To say we have the grace of God because we avoided some sort of suffering or evil or misap and someone else does not have God's grace because they didn't escape trouble is what that platitude really means.

Spoken vacuums can be avoided if we looked at the meaning of what we're saying before we say it. If we repeat garbage that we have heard without thinking about it, that's just as bad. Then we misprepresent our experience and understanding.

Keep in mind that we've all spoken stuff and heard stuff we shouldn't have. Other empty platitudes (stuff we don't reflect on):

"God won't give you anything that you can't handle." OK when speaking for yourself, but not generally helpful when trying it out on others. Speak for thyself.

"You'll get over it." It depends on what the "it" is. Often this is preceeded by "You're young..." Just think the trouble we would get into when we preceeded empty sayings with "Your old..."

Worn out: "My bad," "Not a problem," "Hard-wired," and any hyphenation with "driven." Driven as adjective is badly shop-worn.

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Clergy are frequently present for others, but no one can offer what we don't have.. That's why if you're a clergy person, you need someone who will listen to you. Not the next closest person available, but rather someone like a spiritual director, a therapist, a peer who can be fully present to you. I hope the links and posts you find here will give you ideas, humor, hope and encouragement. Scott Endress

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If you want a formula for making the best of the less-than-perfect and making the most of what you have been given, then begin to compare your lot to what you were before you were born, and it will empower you with wonder every time. John Claypool

Making Good Decisions

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Bishop White's Letters to Martin

Ministry as commodity

When examined more deeply, it turns out that the current emphasis on clergy effectiveness is due to a change in the role of pastors that occurred in the 1920s concomitant with the development of the assembly line...

Faith and Celebrity

The reality-show obsessed world we live in does not usually recognize righteousness when they see it. They tend to want a star they can vote for and a leader they can admire for being as successful as any baseball player or character on Jersey Shore. For that reason I will not consider it a failure if none of our graduates ever sit across from Oprah or lead a church so large that it used to be a sports arena. After all, the first and last time Jesus was put to a vote, the people picked Barabbas.

Empire building, whether through dynastic families or in office towers, is often the material of tragedy. John Milton called fame "the last infirmity of a noble mind." He knew it was a trap, one that was especially dangerous for outstanding people.

On Being Your Own Best Self

We must not be surprised if we frequently find in ourselves emotions of pride, of self-complacency, of self-confidence, of desire to follow our own inclination against what is right, of impatience at the weakness of others, or even annoyance at our own condition. We must instantly let them drop like some stone to the bottom of the sea.François Fenelon, Talking with God